The last time the the pop star was in our city was on March 28, when she celebrated her 23rd birthday with 2,200 fans at a sold-out Metropolis. She returned last night to play to a much bigger sellout crowd of 12,300 at the Bell Centre. It was the first stop on her highly anticipated, 22-date Monster Ball Tour.

Last month, she told Rolling Stone her Haus of Gaga minions were hard at work preparing elaborate sets and costumes to give fans an out-of-the-ordinary concert experience: a multimedia “pop-electro opera.”

Gaga is feeling the pressure, apparently. Her management is refusing to provide press tickets or allow photographers for the first three stops of the tour – Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. They can’t prevent an intrepid journalist from buying a ticket, however. And so the Gazette was on hand with a very excited crowd of Gaga fanatics. The “I (heart) Lady Gay Gay” T-shirts (sic) were a hot item at the merch counter.!”

Things got off to a slow start; the fashion icon was fashionably late. Cheers erupted when the lights finally dropped just before 10 p.m., but she wasn’t ready to come out just yet. A giant screen lit up with a futuristic, glowing green grid. Gaga finally appeared, striking an awkward pose, blond locks cascading over her shoulders, a shimmering mask around her eyes.

She opened with a new song, Dance In the Dark, off her new album The Fame Monster, before following with a string of tracks off last year’s The Fame. A dazzling rendition of Just Dance found her rising on a platform, keytar over her shoulder as eight dancers in white bodysuits locked into step below her. It was a strong start. But Beautiful, Dirty, Rich was tepid in comparison. An overlong techno interlude ensued – the first sign of pacing problems, but not the last.

LoveGame, Boys Boys Boys, Alejandro – the songs followed in fast order, with not quite enough to set them apart. It was one choreographed dance number after the next. Things lightened up halfway through as Gaga began to interact with the crowd: chatting at length, joking, offering messages of empowerment: “What matters is you can be whoever the (expletive) you want no matter what anybody tells you.”

She grabbed the bull by the horns in a solo piano segment, turning her hit Poker Face into a cabaret number, squatting on her bench, starting and stopping at random. Lo and behold, Kid Cudi appeared, dropping an engaging freestyle. A vibe was taking hold. She dedicated the heartfelt ballad Speechless to her dad, who was in the audience. The party jams returned with Fashion and The Fame, as Gaga donned a gold Cleopatra-inspired outfit and pranced about the stage. She crawled atop her piano for the funky Money Honey.

But things were still lagging. The elements are there but they haven’t all been brought together. Gaga is an engaging performer, but this show needs to be fleshed out. Let’s not forget that she’s relatively new to this. With that in mind, there was lots of promise to her arena-headlining debut. Just give her time to grow. As deadlined encroached, she broke into the real rendition of Poker Face. She pumped her fist, her dancers joined in, the crowd began to sing, and there was liftoff.

Her new smash Bad Romance sealed the deal. Though a little rough around the edges, Gaga reached her rousing climax. Better late than never.

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